Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman (27 June 1869-14 May 1940) was a Jewish-American anarchist philosopher who was well-known for her writings and lectures. In 1917, she was arrested for opposing the draft during World War I, and she was deported to Russia two years later (despite being a US citizen), and she died in Canada in 1940.

Biography


Emma Goldman was born in Kovno, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire (now Kaunas, Lithuania) to a Jewish family on 27 June 1869. She emigrated to the United States in 1885 at the age of 16 to flee anti-Semitism back in Russia, and she worked as a seamstress while living in Rochester, New York. Goldman was attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, during which anarchists attacked policemen as they broke up a strike in Chicago. Goldman became a writer and lecturer, and she spoke out in favor of women's rights, anarchism, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands of people.

Anarchist leader
Goldman became friends and lovers with fellow anarchist philosopher Alexander Berkman, and the two of them plotted to assassinate financier Henry Clay Frick in 1892. Berkman was sentenced to 22 years in prison after the attempt failed, and Goldman herself would be imprisoned several times for inciting riots and illegally distributing information about birth control, a topic that was then censored by the conservative government. In 1906, she founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth, and she organized the "No Conscription League" in New York City to oppose the draft during World War I. Goldman saw the draft of men aged 21-30 as a form of militarism and aggression, driven by capitalism, and she induced people not to register for the draft. This led to her arrest in 1917, and she served two years in prison. In 1919, J. Edgar Hoover devised a plan to have her deported, and she was deported after refusing to answer any questions about her political affiliations in front of a court. She was deported back to Russia, and she became disillusioned with the communist Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the Kronstadt rebellion, opposing the Russian SFSR's suppression of independent voices. Goldman later lived in England, Canada, and France, and she died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1940 at the age of 70.